CGGVeritas announced today that it will launch the next of its planned series of wide-azimuth data library programs in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico with its second major multi-client survey in late November 2007.

The new Garden Banks survey will be the largest wide-azimuth data library survey in the world, extending over 600 OCS blocks in the Garden Banks, Keathley Canyon and East Break areas of the Gulf of Mexico. The survey will be acquired coincidently with the wide-azimuth survey currently in progress in the prolific Walker Ridge area that is due for completion in early 2008.

Bringing the latest in acquisition technology to the program, the two new CGGVeritas vessels, the Vanquish and the Vision, will record the Garden Banks wide-azimuth data. Each vessel is equipped with 10 solid Sentinel streamers and large sources. Two source vessels will join the program, producing a native 4,000 m crossline offset.

Imaging of the data will be performed with proprietary imaging technology specifically designed for wide-azimuth geometry, including 3-D surface-related multiple elimination, tomography, beam migration and reverse time migration.

Fast-track migration for the new Garden Banks survey is scheduled to be available in December 2008.

“The early results of the Walker Ridge wide-azimuth survey are already showing the benefits of utilizing the CGGVeritas state-of-the-art acquisition and processing technologies,” said Tim Wells, president, Western Hemisphere, CGGVeritas. “These will again be brought into play to resolve the complex geologic environment of the Garden Banks area. The high pre-funding levels for the Garden Banks survey are a good indication of the industry’s continued growing interest in wide-azimuth technology and confirm the oil and gas potential of this area.”
For further information, please contact Andy Phipps, VP Marine Data Library – Western Hemisphere, Tel: +1 832 351 8365